LuckyLucky-Prologue
by Hollee
Summary: (Rustles through papers) Ah-hah! This is a Pokemon fic. If given the choice to start your life over, would you accept?


This is my first real try at a fic. I don't know, it might be kind of long; but bear with me, I have plans for it. Please read it and enjoy!

I don't own any of these pocket monsters; they all belong to Nintendo and the Japanese companies that animate them. Please don't sue me; all you'll get is my old socks.

__

Dreams

~Thought-Speak~

*********************************************************************** 

LuckyLucky~Prologue

It was already dark by the time the workers left their offices. The sun had set over the mountains long before the last bell rang. The workers left the department store like an army of ants, losing numbers at every street as they turned towards their homes. Sarah turned down her street with several other workers, but was alone by the time she turned into the alley behind her flat. 

A February breeze blew down the alley, chilling through her worn out coat. She pulled it a little tighter and leaned into the wind. The forecast called for snow, which would be a blessing after weeks of mush and icy rain. She kept her head bent against the cold, and studied the cobblestones in the street. As she was passing the Chinese restaurant, she noticed a small glow on the street. It seemed to be pulsing, but even as she drew nearer it began to grow fainter. She craned her neck to look behind a row of trashcans.

A tiny growlithe lay curled up behind the trashcans. It was shivering violently in the rotten ice at the base of the trashcans. It was whimpering very quietly, almost as if it was asleep. Sarah began to pass on by, as she usually would have, but something caused her to turn back. 

The growlithe pup was looking at her, and it's bright blue eyes held something that couldn't be ignored. The eyes pulled at something inside her, and in that moment she knew that she couldn't have left the pup out there for all the gold in the world. Sarah hesitated once more, then bent and gathered the tiny pokemon into her arms. She walked the last few feet to her home.

Her house was cold as it always was; she didn't make enough money to heat it properly. She quickly grabbed a large box left over from the last time she had moved and lined it with old blankets from her ragbag. She deposited the growlithe neatly into the box, and set it by the radiator, where it at least had some chance of being warm. 

There wasn't much food in the pantry; Sarah lived alone and had never had much call for food. She wouldn't have known what to feed the tiny pokemon, anyway. She had never owned a pokemon in her life. There was no reason for her to own one because she had always been too sick to become a trainer, and that was really the only use for pokemon, it seemed, nowadays. She took a small plate of leftovers from the refrigerator and poured some milk in a small saucer. The little growlithe looked up when she entered the room, and sniffed at the offering tiredly before taking a few bites. That effort seemed too much for it, and it promptly fell asleep.

"I know what you feel like, little guy," Sarah muttered. She kicked off her shoes and prepared to go to sleep on the couch. She hadn't eaten dinner for a couple of day because she just hadn't been hungry, and she slept on the couch much of the time now because climbing the stairs had become too much of an effort for her. It took all her effort just to go to work in the morning to earn money to keep the heat on. Even as she reclined on the couch she broke into the rattling cough that had plagued her for months now.

The twilight slowly faded into night, and the old house that was Sarah's home started to settle. The starts came out one by one, and the moon tried to peek between the growing masses of storm clouds. The whole town was asleep when the first fluffy snowflake fell; the first of many that would cover the town by morning.

Several hours later the sun tried to rise over the sleeping town. The clouds hid it, however. The lone Dodrio rose and ruffled it's feathers. It could sense that day had come, and it ruffled it's feathers in preparation. Then it offered its easily recognizable squawk to the world, the one that would send the town scurrying for work. 

The three-toned squeal woke the sleeping growlithe. He looked out from under sleep heavy eyes at the unfamiliar world around him. The old rags had become flat from where he had slept on them, and the food was stale. A small rumbling in his stomach told him that it was time to eat. He rose and stretched, then yawned widely. 

Getting out of the box was simple; he just jumped over the edge. The old house was cold in the morning, and his breath came in clouds. It was dark inside from the clouds that billowed outside. At one end of the room was a door that led to a place that emanated with good food smells, and at the other end was a staircase that led up into inky blackness. Adjacent to the staircase was his box that stood by the radiator, and across from it was a door that led outside. The couch was the only object in the small room. 

The growltihe's legs were still stiff from his rest and the cold. He trotted around the room for a moment, interestedly sniffing in corners. The grumbling in his stomach became too much, however, and he wandered over to where the woman lay on the couch.

She was still asleep; the dodrio hadn't been enough to rouse her out of her deep sleep. Her breath came in ragged breaths, and it was often interrupted by bouts of coughing. Long, blonde hair hung over one arm of the couch, and her right arm had slipped off the edge of the cushions. The growlithe carefully crept over to where she lay, and he slid his muzzle under her hand. Growlithes emanated natural warmth from their body, and this sudden change in temperature awakened her. She stared groggily at the ceiling for a few minutes, then realized where she was. She rolled off the couch, then headed weakly toward the kitchen where she started water boiling for coffee. The growlithe had trotted after her, but it took her a moment before she realized it was there. "Guess you're hungry, huh?" she croaked. 

She rummaged in the refrigerator for a moment before she came out with an old piece of roast beef. He gobbled it up hungrily, then lay down on the floor to watch her get ready.

She changed into her work clothes quickly, then poured to the coffee into a mug where steam rose like tentacool tendrils from the top. She leaned against the counter and sipped the coffee carefully. 

"Guess I'll have to find you some proper pokemon food now. Only, I don't know what you eat. You are a growlithe, right? I'll ask around at work. I'm sure someone will know." She stared into the cup thoughtfully, then looked up and smiled a lopsided smile at her new friend. "I've always wanted a growlithe. Only....," she didn't finish the sentence before she started the next one." Say, where did you come from, anyway? It seems pretty silly to be sleeping out in the cold like that. I suppose some careless trainer forgot about you. Is that it?"

the growlithe didn't understand what she was saying, but he wagged his tail in ecstasy over the attention she was paying to him.

"Well, I suppose I'd better be off to work now." She sighed as she rinsed out her mug. "I'm going to be late as it is." She grabbed her threadbare coat off a hook in the hall and headed out the door. the lock turned with a clicking noise, and he could hear her coughing growing fainter in the distance as she headed to work. 

***

Sarah leaned tiredly against the wide cosmetics counter and yawned. It hadn't been a very busy day at the Celadon Department Store, which wasn't surprising, seeing as how the weather had been acting. Many of her employees hadn't bothered to show up that day. She rearranged the foundations again, then glanced at the clock. It wasn't even time for her coffee break. She yawned again, then tried to surpress a fit of coughing. 

The store was all decorated in red and pink for Valentine's Day. Everywhere streamers fluttered, and at the entrance was an arch of pink and red balloons. The man that Sarah wanted to see most was just walking underneath it. She straightened up a bit more as he passed her.

"Dave! Dave, over here!" she called as she waved her arms. He caught a glimpse of her and started to make his way towards her through a maze of displays. When her reached her, he was out of breath.

"What is it? Something wrong?" he panted.

"Dave, do you know anything about pokemon?"

"Oh, that. Yeah, it was the family business for years. Since I'm not the firstborn, I had to come work here," he said with distaste.

"Maybe you can help me then. I found this tiny growlithe in the snow, and I was just wondering what to feed it. I'm not sure leftovers are the best food."

"Yeah." Dave scratched hid head in thought. "You'll probably just want a bulk food, nothing fancy, but buy some carbos down at the pokemart, to beef it up. That ought to be just fine."

"Thanks a lot, Dave," she said as she smiled her crooked smile.

"So, what are you going to do, keep it?" He asked with a touch of curiosity.

"Yeah, sure. Why not?" she countered.

"Well, I just thought I might come see it sometime. Do you know how much I miss the pokemon I grew up with? I just want to see another one around this city," he said with a boyish grin.

"Well, why don't you come over sometime? Here, here's my number," she said, scrawling it on a piece of pink crepe paper. Dave studied it for a moment, then folded it carefully and put it in his back wallet, which he inserted in the back pocket of his work pants.

"See you later, then!" he called as he wound his way back towards the mailroom. Sarah leaned on the counter, watching him disappear. Then she turned back to her counter to rearrange a set of perfumes.

***

The rasp of a key turning in a lock awakened the growlithe, and he jumped to his feet. The door opened, allowing small flurries to come in, then closed with a slam. His new friend dropped a heavy bag of something that smelled delicious (to him) then collapsed at the couch.

"There you go. A five-pound bag of discount growlithe chow. I bought it bulk," she said with a wink. The growlithe wagged in appreciation.

"Hey! I know what I forgot. You need a name, don't you? I can't just keep calling you 'IT'. How about Ralph? Duke? Rover isn't any good. Hey, I know! I'll call you Lucky. It's simple and it fits, seeing as how you're lucky I found you." She reached down and ruffled the longer part of his fur that grew on his head. "Yeah, you're my lucky pup." 

Lucky wagged his short tail at her, then looked pointedly at the bag of food that lay in the entrance.

"Oh-hoh! I know what it is you want. What makes you think I'll give you any, hmmm?" she forced her tired body out of the chair. "I guess I'll feed you, then," she teased as she headed toward the kitchen. She reached into one of the top cupboards and withdrew an old but still good plate. It had one chip in the top, and a small crack ran down the side. She ran water through it to clean the dust out, then shook the droplets onto a dishtowel. She rattled the small kibble pieces into the china dish while Lucky ran around her feet. He was already eating the food by the time the dish hit the floor. 

Sarah collapsed into a chair, breathing hard. "Whew! I'm out of shape!" she huffed. "I've really got to start exercising." She broke into a fit of coughing that shook her thin body. 

Now, dogs may not be the smartest of animals, but they do have intuition as to when their masters are hurt or are in pain. Lucky looked up uneasily from his food dish at the sound of her hacking. He reluctantly left the food to sit down by her feet and put his muzzle on her knee.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," she gasped, tars in her eyes. "Don't you worry about me, Luckums. I've been living alone for quite some time now, and I know how to take care of myself."

Lucky returned carefully to his bowl, watching her carefully, to protect her from any harm. She chuckled a little at this sight, but was cut off by the phone. She reached over from her chair and took it from the hook on the wall.

"Hello? Oh, Dave, it's you! ...uh huh....uh huh...that sounds good to me. Okay, tomorrow is fine for me. See you then! Bye!" She hung up the phone with a starry look in her big brown eyes. She glanced over at Lucky and giggled, saying "I bet you wish you knew who that was!"

Sarah looked longingly to the window, which let in the only light in the room, a dull gray presence. Lucky came to sit by his master's feet after he finished his meal. Sarah continued to look out the window as the light faded into the blackness of night.

***

"I'm really honored that you would come to see me," Sarah said as she walked down the alley with Dave. "This is where I found Lucky, by the way. Can you imagine what kind of person would just leave him here? What a bum!" 

Dave nodded, silently agreeing with her. He surreptitiously glanced around the area, noticing how run down it looked. The buildings all looked like they were decaying before he had been born. 

Sarah turned to add more to her story, but at the look on Dave's face, she blushed. She knew how bad the neighborhood was, although she hadn't been embarrassed about it for awhile. She stopped in front of her flat, nervously giggling. "This is it!" She said as she fumbled with her keys. 

The door swung open, and they entered the silent flat, their breath coming in clouds. "I'll go get the furnace going," Sarah said. She left Dave standing in the room, staring at the sparse furnishings in her flat. He knew that people at the department store didn't make much, but they should be able to afford more than this. The furnace made a huge clunking sound as it reluctantly came on, and he nearly missed the small sound made by the inquisitive pup. He bent to look behind the couch, and there sat Lucky, surveying inquisitively. Dave stared back, and the growlithe looked away first.

Sarah stepped into the room just then, breathless and coughing a little bit. She chuckled at the sight of the two men in her living room, and then straightened up regally. "Dave, may I present Lucky?" She announced in her best hostess voice, then waved her hand towards Lucky. "And Lucky, may I present Dave?" Right then, as if a wall had been broken down, Lucky loped to Dave and gave him a big slurp on the forehead. 

Dave took Lucky into his arms and began wrestling. The small growlithe played along, barking and growling, sometimes biting Dave. After about ten minutes, they were out of breath and lay panting on the carpet. Sarah rose from her place on the couch, where she had taken refuge from the fight. She uncurled her legs, then asked "Would you like a cup of tea?"

Panting, Dave replied, "Yeah! That would be great, if you don't mind." Sarah left the room quietly and started running water in the kitchen. Dave took the opportunity to begin examining the growlithe. He expertly ran his hands along the growlithe's limbs, and checked his mouth. A small line appeared between his eyes, and he murmured, "That's curious..." 

His thoughts were interrupted when Sarah settled onto the couch with a sigh. "It's peppermint tea. I hope it's okay, because that's the only kind I have." He murmured an affirmative and settled on the couch next to Sarah. They both sipped the tea quietly for a few moments.

"Do you know how old Lucky is?" asked Dave, breaking the silence.

"Why, he's only a puppy! Just look at him."

"I don't think so," frowned Dave. "He's definitely full grown. He's just very small. But he's pretty nice for a growlithe, which is a lot to say, since they're all agreeable."

Sarah beamed at the compliment, but was bent double the next moment with a coughing fit. Dave looked on with worry, and Lucky jumped from his place on the carpet and anxiously tried to lick her face. Sarah waved them both away, her face red and wet with tears, but she still couldn't breathe, so Dave gave her a big smack on the back. With a big gulp she started breathing again, and she pulled Lucky onto her lap. "Than...thank you," she gasped.

"Are you sure you're okay? I think you should see a doctor about that," Dave said with concern.

"No, no, I'm fine. Besides, what would I pay with? Isn't it pretty obvious that I don't have any money?" she said bitterly. 

"Well, I guess I'd better be going now," Dave said sheepishly. He strode quickly to the door and let himself out before Sarah could move. 

"Now I've gone and done it," Sarah said as she hugged Lucky close. Her face was wet with tears again, but this time they weren't because she was choking. 

***

The cough didn't go away, and Sarah was beginning to think that she might have to shell out some of her savings to see a doctor. A week after Valentine's day she fainted and had to be taken to the employee's lounge for rescisutation .She tried to convince her coworkers that she was just tired, and they grudgingly accepted her lie. They wouldn't let her go back to work, though, so she lay on the battered sofa and stared at the ceiling.

Just after the coffee break was over, Dave came into the lounge, glowing from the physical exertion of his job. Sarah turned her face into the pillow, not wanting to see him right then. After he stirred creamer into the coffee he came and sat on the end of the sofa. A few minutes passed while Dave sipped and Sarah suffocated herself. 

"So...," Dave started.

Sarah turned herself back from the couch and quietly sucked air, hoping she wouldn't begin to cough.

"Have you heard about that new movie with that guy from that really funny TV show? It looks really funny," Dave said awkwardly. Sarah's heart began to pound, and she hoped against hope that this was what she thought it was...

"It opens on Friday, and I was wondering if you might want to go see it with me."

Sarah closed her eyes and nodded very solemnly. They made small talk for awhile, until Dave had to leave to go back to work. The lounge was silent, and warm. The furnace made a comfortable humming sound. Sarah soon found herself nodding off to sleep in the quiet warmth.

__

The neighborhood growlithe's howled at the moon. A young Sarah lay shivering under the sheets. She coughed quietly, afraid to wake up her grandparent's.

She was afraid to go to sleep at night because as soon as she closed her eyes, monsters skulked from all the corners of her imagination. Instead, she stared at the ceiling and coughed. She tried her hardest to keep awake.

A creak gave it away. Sarah's eyes opened wide as another creak followed. She glanced around the room, trying to find the source of the noise and breathing hard. After several terror filled seconds, it stepped into a shaft of moonlight. Sarah mouth opened wide in a silent scream, but was cut off when the figure in the hood grasped her by the throat...

Sarah awoke with a jerk. She looked around wildly at her surroundings before she realized where she was. Very slowly she started to relax, but the ominous feeling just wouldn't go away. 

***

The movie was a pretty bad one, the kind that was funny but had no plot. The real fun had been sitting in the dark, holding hands and trying to guess what was on each other's minds. Every now and then she would look at him with his face intent on the movie and wonder what he was thinking. The ultimate honor would be if he was thinking of her...

"And then the guy's face went like this," Dave said, pantomiming, "and the girl's went like this, and it was just sooo hilarious!" He sobered a little, then went on, "That was actually probably the best part of the movie. It was pretty bad." 

Sarah giggled at the letdown look on his face and nodded in agreement. They started towards her flat, walking through the winter night past shops closed for the night. As they walked, they went from one pool of light from a lamplight to another. It was like a string of pearls, except made with lights. They stopped in front of a dark pet shop and looked through the glass. The street lamp faintly illuminated the front window, and they could see sleeping meowths. 

After a moment of silence, Sarah began quietly, "I always wanted to be a pokemon trainer. I had a dream that me and my pokemon would be the greatest there ever was. It would have been a meowth, of course. But," she sighed, "It just wasn't to be."

"Why?"

"Because I got sick. I lived with my grandmother and grandfather, and what with my grandmother's medical bill, we just couldn't afford to do anything about it. I spent most of my childhood in bed, and I wasn't allowed any pokemon. They said I was too sick to have any." Sarah coughed just then, as if to prove her point. 

They stared at the sleeping pokemon for a moment longer, then Dave began bitterly, "Well, I should be working my family's pokemon ranch, but they said I wasn't qualified. My brother John got it instead, and he's going to run it into the ground! He doesn't know the first thing about pokemon!" Dave seethed. Sarah put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and they stood in the pool of light before the pokemon store for another moment before moving on. At the next street lamp they passed a bar alive with music and people whose energy seemed to flood out onto the sidewalk. It seemed to be the only life on the street. The next lamp would be a turnoff for Sarah to go to her flat. She savored the last remaining steps with Dave before they would split ways.

In the light of the next lamp they paused, and, seized by the moment, Sarah threw her arms around Dave in a quick hug. Then, embarrassed, she headed off down her alley.

Dave just stood, bemused, in the lamplight.

***

Sarah stirred again in her sleep, and her breath rattled in her lungs. Lucky sat restlessly by her side as her fingers played in her fur. The small growlithe was uneasy, and he knew it had to do with Sarah. He couldn't mark time, but he knew that she had been in bed for a long time. One evening she had come home from work extremely upset. He didn't know why, but it turned out she had been fired. Her coughing had become so bad, they said, that she scared away customers. She no longer had any money left to pay the gas or electric bill, but the water was still running. 

Sarah had taken to the couch on that day, and had spent most of her time there, only getting up to feed Lucky. Sometimes her new friend had come over, and he usually brought small gifts with him. He had come today, and after trying to talk with her, he had seemed worried. He left, promising to bring back a doctor. Sarah had hardly noticed. 

It had been light outside then, but now it was dark. Snow was falling now, and the flakes were piling into drifts. Big drifts.

Sarah stirred in her sleep again, and Lucky whined and pressed his muzzle closer.

__

It was summer again, the bright summer of her youth. The air was heavy and sweet with honeysuckle. The house was hot, though, because they couldn't afford air conditioning. Sarah could watch the other children through the window. Most of them were playing the games of childhood, but others were old enough to have pokemon, and they reveled in showing them off to the younger kids.

Sarah was old enough to have pokemon, but she didn't own any. Not a one. She couldn't even go outside and play with the other children's pokemon. Her duty was inside with her grandmother. She had to wait until the silver bell rang, and then she had to run upstairs and see what her grandmother wanted. All day she had been running up and down the stairs, and she was sure that if she had to do it one more time, she would die.

Her grandfather wasn't home to help her. He was off gambling at a club again. That's why there was no money for anything anymore.

The heat was stifling, and Sarah was finding it hard to breathe. She began to feel dizzy, and in the thick air, she began to hear a bell ring. Dimly, she knew _what to do, and she went for the stairs._

She had only climbed up two stairs when she fell to the ground unconscious.

Sarah stirred in her sleep and muttered something about being hot. She flung her blankets away, and in the cold she started shivering almost immediately. Lucky felt her body begin to chatter and he started to whine and paw at her hand. He desperately wanted her to wake up...

It was cold, and the stars shone outside her window in beautiful clarity, compared to everything else in her life. She shivered underneath her small blanket, both because of the fact that she had no blankets and the fact that her window had been broken for two weeks. Her grandfather had broken it when he was working on the roof, and instead of fixing it, he took her blankets away and gave them to her grandmother, so she wouldn't get cold.

Sarah reached to the foot of the bed and grabbed at her blankets in a daze. 

__

This time, she was somewhere else. In her grandmother's room, it looked like, from the horrible furnishings and wallpaper. Her grandmother's bed took up the whole room. It was a magnificent four poster in carved mahogany.

Her grandmother lay prone on the blankets. A respirator was pumping hard to keep her alive, as it had been pumping for ten years now. Sarah actually vaguely remembered a time when her grandmother had made cookies for her and taken her to the park. They had done fun stuff together. Now her grandmother couldn't even remember who she was.

Every night Sarah's grandfather made her come give her grandmother a hug goodnight. She hated doing it, and often dragged her homework out so she wouldn't have to, until her grandfather had found out what she was doing and whipped her for it.

Now she stood at the edge of the bed, and shuddered at the sight of her grandmother, who she had once loved more than anything in the world. She was literally a skeleton, and her skin was yellow from years of disease. Sarah quickly bent down and gave her a hug, and even though her own body was thin, hers enveloped her grandmother's entirely. The embrace had barely begun before it was over and Sarah backed out of the room.

She hurried through the embraces because she was afraid. Her grandmother couldn't remember who she was, and she often hit her from her fear. Besides, it was horrible to think that that was how she would turn out...

Sarah stirred in her sleep and whispered "No!" she started repeating it, louder and louder until the sound of her strained voice filled the small flat and echoed from the walls. Lucky raised his muzzle and howled along with her, a long golden note that sounded just as mournful.

Abruptly, he stopped. A golden light was emanating from the corner at the right of the room. As he watched it suspiciously, it began to grow large and larger, soon taking a shape, though Lucky couldn't tell what it was. Sarah was still shouting deliriously, but started to quiet down as the light took shape. 

A living skeleton on bright flowered blankets

~_That's not what you want, is it?_~ asked a voice in her dream.

Yellow skin...sunken eyes...

~_You will become like that. Listen to me_~

Sarah awoke suddenly. She started, then turned her eyes to the voice. Just then, it took it's true form.

Which is to say, it had none.

A golden aura pulsed around it. It kept changing forms. As far as Sarah could tell, they were all pokemon. She saw a pidgey...a persian...a pikachu...a magnemite...but it kept moving so fast she could hardly grasp one form before it moved on. The shapes ran the gamut from pokemon she knew to some she didn't. there was the faintest suggestion behind the pokemon of a human, but somehow not human...

It spoke again, in an ephemeral voice that seemed to be laughing and crying, male and female at the same time; it could be demanding and soothing in the same breath.

~_I know you. I have watched you for a long time. But I have watched a great many_ _other people, too.~_ It paused. ~_My job is to watch people. I saw you rescue my child from the cold. Many other people did not. I saw you feed my child when so many others would have sent him to an institute. For that I am grateful.~_

Sarah looked on in confusion. "But I don't...."

~_I know you don't understand. You see, I am_ -a name Sarah couldn't understand; it sounded like wind chimes in the breeze- _and it is my job to watch over pokemon, yes, but humans, also. Humans could not exist without pokemon, and the same is true for pokemon. I have many children of many kinds. You are my child. Dave is my child. But this growlithe here, -a name like tulips in the wind-, is more my child than he would seem. I am grateful that you rescued him.~_

At the sound of his real name, Lucky had run to his masters side, happily jumping in a sort of growlithe dance. He recognized his true master, Sarah realized.

__

~He called me when he howled. I must be going now...I have no time for a break from my duties~

It turned to leave, calling Lucky as it went. Lucky looked between his masters, at the gold being and Sarah, and sat down. The creature turned in surprise and spoke to Lucky in an unknown dialect. Lucky answered. The creature turned toward Sarah. 

~_I am surprised. My child has chosen you over me._ It frowned. _This is not good. He would certainly perish, because you, my child, will die soon, leaving him alone. Don't look surprised. I know these things, and I'm sure you did too. You are only awake and not hallucinating because it suits me that it should be so.~_

Sarah hung her head; the thought had occurred to her more lately. A gut feeling told her that the cough wouldn't go away, and she knew that the dream at her work had been a warning, or maybe a glance into the future.

The creature looked from his son to Sarah, and back again. It sighed. ~_I believe, however, that we can make a deal. My son has chosen you, and I respect his decision. I cannot take him against his will, and I cannot leave you here to die. Therefore, I believe I might have to bend the rules a bit. It moved closer to Sarah. Now, if you will allow me, I will send you to a new life, along my son. Would you like that?~_

Sarah thought of her life; her dead end job, her rotten childhood, her. The thought of her recurring illness was what made up her mind for her; the thought of the pain and the terror. She thought of Dave, too, in a bitterly sentimental way and a tear caught in her eyes. "Forgive me, Dave," she whispered.

~You have chosen, I see. The creature said approvingly. Now, close your eyes...~

Sarah closed her eyes, but it the darkness didn't last long. There was a soft golden glow, then nothing....just a floating sensation.....

***

As soon as he had reached the door, Dave knew that he was too late. The house emanated silence.

He had been unable to find a doctor in the storm, and he had struggled back to sit with her. He had been too late, and now he surveyed the room.

Sarah lay peacefully on the couch, free from the coughing that had plagued her for months. A crooked smile had formed on her face. Lucky, however, was nowhere to be found. Dave stood in the room, gazing at his newfound love, savoring the moment alone with her. He felt protective, he didn't want anyone to join him now. 

The soft glow of a lamp had illuminated a small peace of parchment on the end table. Dave gently picked it up, blinking back tears from his eyes. It read: 

__

Winter winds

A rogue pokemon

Happiness found me

I must leave

I love you, Dave.

Love,

Sarah

Dave's tears fell quietly in the dead house in the alley.

Fin

Love it? Hate it? Asleep?

Send Question, comments, suggestions to [Holleeone@aol.com][1]

Don't laugh at my poem….it's my first try.. ;)

   [1]: mailto:Holleeone@aol.com



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